This book investigates the impact of contemporary political upheavals on the formation of the idea of America in the writings of Robert Southey (1774-1843), Joel Barlow (1754-1812) and Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Focusing on three epic poems, the book considers Southey, Barlow and Whitman as epic writers during a period of great national and international turmoil, and analyses the relationship between the articulation of national identity and the conflicted politics of the day. The book argues that each of these writers, affected by contemporary events and dangers that threatened the unity and...